Vazquez almost pitches a no-hitter

[RockSports17]

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Not since Wilson Alvarez did it in August 1991 has a White Sox pitcher thrown a no-hitter.

But there stood Javier Vazquez on Wednesday, staring down history with the same calmness he showed in sitting down batter after batter in the Kansas City Royals' lineup.

Who could have guessed that a lip of dirt down the third-base line would be a deciding factor in keeping Vazquez from entering the record books?

Taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning of an eventual 4-0 victory over the Royals, Vazquez got Tony Graffanino to ground out, moving eight outs away.

Next up was Doug Mientkiewicz, who got jammed on an inside pitch but flung out enough of the bat to check-swing a slow roller down the third-base line. Joe Crede knew it was bad news.

"I thought it had a chance to go foul, but once it reached the dirt and was going real slow, I knew that was it,'' Crede said. "There's kind of a lip right there on the line, and it was going too slow to get over it.''

Not that Crede didn't do everything he could to change that. He discreetly tried to kick dirt off the line, hoping to change the ball's direction.

"I did my best ditch-digging effort to make it go foul,'' Crede said. "The ump said it wouldn't have worked anyway.''

In the end, the Sox (10-5) got a three-game sweep of the Royals, Vazquez (1-1) got the win and an ovation from the 26,327 at U.S. Cellular Field but the no-hitter was lost.

"I was aware of it, but I'm not thinking about it,'' Vazquez said. "It's too tough to throw a no-hitter.

"It kind of [stinks] that that was the first hit, but what can you do? It's part of the game.''

While Sox manager Ozzie Guillen would have loved nothing more than to see his No. 5 starter accomplish the feat, but he was more interested in the big picture.

It was another dominant performance by a starting pitcher, with Vazquez allowing two hits in eight scoreless innings, and the South Siders finally are playing up to expectations, winning nine of their last 10 games.

"It would be nice if he would have thrown a no-hitter,'' Guillen said, "but in our minds, it's just win the game.''

That was made easy by the Sox' pitchers in this series. They combined to hold the Royals (2-12) to one run in three games.

"I don't want to take anything away from [Vazquez], but he caught us at a good time,'' Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "It looks like we aren't aggressive at the plate and are afraid to make an out up there.''

It's quite a different story for the Sox' offense, which continued to do what it takes to get the job done.

Royals starter Scott Elarton (0-4) did little to help his cause, allowing Alex Cintron to score on a wild pitch in the first inning.

In the fifth, Elarton gave up a solo home run to Juan Uribe, then allowed two more runs when he plunked Jermaine Dye with the bases loaded and catcher Paul Bako allowed a passed ball that gave Jim Thome a free pass home.

A four-run lead was more than enough for Vazquez, especially the way he was throwing. Not bad for a guy who allowed seven runs in his last start and was believed to be tipping his pitches.

"Javy knows what he's doing,'' Guillen said. "He knows he was doing something wrong. He was tipping his pitches. I don't care if people say yes or no because you do not lay off breaking balls the way [the Toronto Blue Jays] were doing.''

Whatever Vazquez was doing was fixed quickly.

"He was different in the way he threw the ball [Wednesday],'' Guillen said.

The Sox' bullpen finished off the Royals as Neal Cotts pitched one-third of an inning and Bobby Jenks got the last two outs for his sixth save.

"I said a couple weeks ago that if we score four runs, we should win,'' Guillen said. "That's the way we built our team. We have a good pitching staff. That's our game, pitching and defense.''

Damn not a bad game pitched by Vaz at all. It's a shame he didn't get that no hitter, but not a bad game at all nonetheless.

Thoughts?

[ThomeIsGod]

I was at the game yesterday and it was a damn shame how the no-no was broken up.

I found it odd how 2 of our 4 runs were scored on wild pitches/passed balls, just strange to me.